The current selection of commercial chiral stationary phases (CSPs) for large scale chromatographic separations are quite limited, and most have been developed as general purpose CSPs rather than the best CSP for a particular separation. While new CSPs can be designed, the development time is often too long to merit serious consideration by process engineers. As a means of rapidly finding the best preparative CSP for a given task, we herein describe a new method for the rapid solid phase synthesis and screening of libraries containing milligram quantities of diverse CSPs. We have recently demonstrated the feasibility of this approach and now seek funding to pursue further development and application to specific problems. The specific aims of Phase I are: (l) Establish proof of concept for the microscale synthesis and screening of chiral stationary phases; (2) Prepare a set of combinatorial CSP libraries; (3) Screen these libraries to find optimal CSPs for separating the enantiomers of a group of model racemates; (4) Investigate improved methods for conducting the CSP library screening. In Phase II we will utilize this technique to develop new preparative chromatographic adsorbents for particular separations needs in the chemical manufacturing arena, including conventional achiral separation problems. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: The need to rapidly identify economical preparative stationary phases will increase dramatically as more pharmaceutical manufacturing processes begin to incorporate industrial scale chromatographic separation. The proposed method is an enabling technology which will permit screening of hundreds of economically viable CSPs and allow selection of the best material for the job, leading to an increased use of industrial scale chromatographic separations. The economic potential is enormous.